By Catherine O’Hara, REVIEW STAFF

After making his way downstairs at approximately 10:30 a.m. on June 6, 2010, Doug Baron poked his head into the family room of his Waterdown home, which played host to one of two parties the night before. That’s when he noticed the tape that bound Christopher Skinner’s ankles. A few moments would go by before the homeowner realized that the 17-year-old Flamborough boy wasn’t sleeping. He was dead.

“I began to notice that this boy didn’t look too good,” said Baron, testifying at a discretionary coroner’s inquest into the circumstances surrounding Skinner’s death from acute alcohol poisoning.

Baron called 911 and proceeded to follow the operator’s instructions. She, according to the homeowner, encouraged him to perform CPR.

“You’ve got to help me do this. You’ve got to help me do this,” he recalled saying to his son, Kyle, at the time. “Kyle was pretty freaked out at that point. So was I.”

Kyle, a friend of Skinner’s, told a five-person jury earlier this week that he and his pals would drink often and a lot, sometimes to the point of passing out. That’s when a prank would be played on the blacked out person. Skinner was on the receiving end of the “joke” on the night of his death. His body was defaced with red and black ink, his legs were bound with duct tape and CDs were stacked on his head.

Underage and binge drinking had taken place at the Baron family home in the past. The jury heard that the Waterdown home often referred to as a “party house.” Baron and his wife, Wendy, testified that they felt their sons, Kyle and Jesse, would be safer if they partied with their friends under their supervision.

But the Barons were in no condition to watch over the youths that night. Both parents testified they had consumed too much alcohol; Wendy had approximately 13 beers over the course of the evening, while Doug said he had consumed 10 or so.

“I was fairly intoxicated,” said Baron on the witness stand Friday afternoon.

In his questioning, Neil Jones, counsel for the Skinner family, wondered why Baron would allow teens under the legal drinking age to consume alcohol in his home if he knew that consuming alcohol under the age of 19 was illegal.

“It was our sense… that it was a little better than maybe having them go somewhere else,” said Baron.

“You were making it comfortable and easy for them to disobey the law,” said Jones.

“That wasn’t our intention,” said Baron.

“That was the effect,” stressed Jones.

“If feels a little safer, that’s what we were thinking,” said Baron.

“What did you do to make it safer” for Skinner and the other under age persons drinking in the home, Jones asked Baron.

“We didn’t do what we should have done on that evening,” replied the 48-year-old father.

On Friday afternoon, the jury heard Baron say that as he prepared to retreat to his bedroom at approximately 2 a.m. on June 6, he noticed a young man, who would later be identified as Skinner, passed out on the couch.

“It didn’t concern you that another person’s child was laying on your couch, passed out?” said the coroner’s counsel, Karen Shea.

“In retrospect, it should have concerned me,” said Baron.

When asked if it ever occurred to him to contact Skinner’s family to advise them of their son’s condition, Baron said, “That evening, I did not make that determination. I had been drinking. I should have, in hindsight. In retrospect, I definitely should have called…done something more.”

Of the boy’s death, Baron said: “We were pretty devastated and traumatized. We were pretty wrecked about it.”

Still, the message of the dangers of binge drinking hasn’t sunk in for some members of the Baron family. Kyle testified earlier this week that he continues to drink to the point of passing out. Baron said he’s attempted to get through to his son, but the process has been challenging.

“We’ve had some difficulties with him,” said the dad.

Do you “try to be friends with your son?” asked Jones.

“I’m not trying to be his friend, I’m trying to get through (to him),” responded Baron.

Dr. Jack Stanborough is presiding over the inquest, which is expected to wrap up by the end of next week (Feb. 24). After 30 witnesses have testified, the jury may take the opportunity to pen recommendations to help prevent similar deaths. The inquest resumes Tuesday (Feb. 21) at the John Sopinka Courthouse in Hamilton.